a look at some of the top statistical performers and top-10 driver ratings for the STP 500 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway, see the stats on the Statistical Advance - Analyzing Martinsville

Race Recap: Brad Keselowski ends Ford drought with Martinsville victory: In Sunday's STP 500 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway, everything worked - but nothing more than Brad Keselowski's race-winning No. 2 Ford. Yes, that's right, a Ford. The car maker found Victory Lane at the .526-mile short track for the first time since Oct. 20, 2002, when Kurt Busch won at NASCAR's oldest and smallest premier series track in a Roush Fenway Racing Ford. Keselowski and runner-up Kyle Busch swapped the lead during the final 64-lap green-flag run, with Busch taking the point on Lap 444 of 500, and Keselowski powering back past Busch's No. 18 Toyota on Lap 458. From that point, Keselowski pulled away to win by 1.806 seconds, as Busch lost the long-run speed he had demonstrated for most of the afternoon.[More](4-2-2017)

Keselowski wins at Martinsville: #2-Brad Keselowski won the STP 500 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway for his 2nd win of the season, 1st win at Martinsville, and 23rd career win.
Keselowski led 120 of the 500 laps. He and #18-Busch swapped the lead back and for throughout the final 100 laps, but Keselowski pulled away at the end to win by 1.8 seconds.
#18-Busch held on for second, followed by #24-Elliott, #22-Logano, #2-Dillon, #47-Allmendinger, #14-Bowyer, #31-Newman, #20-Kenseth, and #17-Stenhouse, Jr.
Pole sitter #42-Larson led the first 23 laps, but fell back into the pack, lost a lap, got the free pass and settled for a 17th place finish.
#24-Elliott led at the end of stage 2 and held on for 3rd place.
#78-Truex, Jr. led at the end of the first stage, but finished 16th after a spin.
There were 19 lead changes among 6 drivers and 14 cautions for 95 yellow flag laps.
The average speed was 70.139mph.Scheduled Race Re-Airs: Monday, April 3 at 9:30am/et on FS2; Tuesday, April 4 at 6:00 am/et on FS1
See unofficial race results, awards, laps led, cautions and more at:Unofficial Race Results page (pdf)Penalty Report (pdf)Cumulative Report (pdf).
See OFFICIAL race results & points standings on the Official Race & Points Report (pdf).(4-2-2017)

Race Fast Facts - Martinsville:
Brad Keselowski won the 68th Annual STP 500, his 23rd victory in 275 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series races.
This is his second victory and fifth top-10 finish in 2017.
This is his first victory and ninth top-10 finish in 15 races at Martinsville Speedway.
Kyle Busch (second) posted his 13th top-10 finish in 24 races at Martinsville Speedway. It is his third top-10 finish in 2017.
Chase Elliott (third) posted his first top-10 finish in four races at Martinsville Speedway.
Erik Jones (12th) was the highest finishing rookie.
Kyle Larson leads the point standings by 4 points over Chase Elliott.
(NASCAR Integrated Sports Marketing)(4-2-2017)

Wave Around: how the wave around rule works: All vehicles between the leader and the caution vehicle at the start/finish line when the "one to go" signal is given by the starter are considered "Wave Around" eligible. "Wave Around" vehicles will not be permitted to enter pit road at any time during this yellow flag/caution period. "Wave Around" vehicles must receive the green flag on the race track before being permitted to enter pit road without a penalty. Vehicles under a penalty and the "Free Pass" vehicle will not be eligible to receive a "Wave Around".

Pit Stall Selections: The selections of pit stalls for the STP 500 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway have been made.
With the field downsized to 40 cars, three pit stalls (21,30,43) have been eliminated, are not in play and don't count towards driving through more than three pit boxes.
Pole sitter #42-Larson chose pit stall 1, the first stall available [as do most pole sitters].
Outside pole sitter #24-Elliott, Jr. took the second pit stall.
#78-Truex, Jr., who starts 3rd, took the 11th stall, with an opening in front of it.
The final pit stall was taken by #1-McMurray who starts 6th.
To see where the drivers/teams pit stall is, see the pit selection chart on Jayski.com's Pit Stall Selection chart.(4-1-2017)

NASCAR Overtime (not called Green-White-Checkered anymore) Race Procedure: NASCAR allows a maximum of three restart attempts prior to the White Flag under NASCAR's Green-White-Checkered flag finish. If the leader has taken the White Flag and the caution flag is displayed, the field is frozen and the race will not be restarted. Previously, there was only one restart attempt. The procedure applies to all three national series. See rule and notes on the NASCAR Overtime rules/news/stats page.

Rain forces cancellation of Martinsville qualifying; Larson on pole: #42-Kyle Larson will start from the pole for the STP 500 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway after qualifying was cancelled. The starting lineup was set by the rule book (owner points).
#24-Elliott starts second, followed by #78-Truex, Jr., #2-Keselowski, #22-Logano, #1-McMurray, #21-Blaney, #14-Bowyer, #4-Harvick, and #18-Busch.
Driver(s) who will miss the race: none as 38 were entered for 40 spots.
See the qualifying results (how the field was set) on the qualifying results page and the complete starting lineup on the Starting Lineup page (pdf).(3-31-2017)

Qualifying rainout puts Larson on the pole at Martinsville: For the second straight week, Kyle Larson will start on the pole for a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series event. He can only hope the result of the race is the same, too. Last week, Larson won the pole at Auto Club Speedway and went on to win last Sunday's race at the two-mile track. On Friday, when rain washed out time trials at Martinsville Speedway, Larson earned the top starting spot for Sunday's STP 500 (2 p.m. ET on FS1) on the basis of owner points. However, Larson will have to overcome his own history at the .526-mile track.9More](3-31-2017)

Coverage of Qualifying for the STP 500 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway is scheduled for Friday, March 31, 2017 at 5:05pm/et.Television (TV): FS1, 4:30pm/etRadio: Live online at Performance Racing Network (PRN)Scheduled Qualifying Re-Air: Saturday, April 1 at 9:00am/et on FS1

Group qualifying under the three-round qualifying format:
• Round 1 -- All entries will have 20 minutes to post a qualifying time, after which the 24 registering the fastest laps will advance to the second round. Those failing to advance will be sorted based on first-round times in descending order (from fastest to slowest).
• Round 2 -- The 24 fastest from the first round will have 10 minutes to post a second-round qualifying time, with the 12 fastest advancing to a third round. Those not advancing will earn starting positions 13 through 24 based on time, again in descending order.
• Round 3 -- The final round will be five minutes in length. The fastest times from this session will determine the first (Coors Light Pole Award) through 12th starting positions.
There will be a seven-minute break between each round; teams may make adjustments to their entries only during the individual breaks. They will not be allowed to jack the vehicle or raise the hood, and once the car or truck enters the garage, it will no longer be permitted to return to the track for additional qualifying attempts.

Qualifying Order for the STP 500 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway is posted.
The first driver to be lined up on pit road will be #3-Dillon.
The final driver lined up on pit road will be #47-Allmendinger.
The order is set by a random draw, how cars park on pit road before they qualify, held about an hour before the first practice.
After the first round, the cars lined up by speed.
For the qualifying order, see the Qualifying Order page (pdf).(3-31-2017)

Entry List for the STP 500 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway is posted, 38 teams/drivers [for 40 spots] are listed.
36 teams with Charters are guaranteed to make the field. The rest need to make the field via qualifying / qualifying races / rules book (owners attempts/points).
Some of the drivers entered include: #15-Sorenson, #23-Gaulding, #51-Hill*, #83-LaJoie*
Drivers who currently to not drive for a team with a Charter and need to race into the field: #51-Hill*, #83-LaJoie*.
Drivers who would miss the race if qualifying is canceled (least race attempts): none
Since only 38 cars are entered, all drivers will make the race.
See the full entry list on the Entry List (pdf)

How to Calculate Track Speeds: use the formula Speed = Distance divided by Time. Distance is Track Length, and Lap Time into Hours. Once hour is 3600 seconds, so the calculation for a 48 second lap at Daytona(2.5 miles) would be: Speed = 2.5 x (3600/48), = 2.5 x 75 = 187.500mph. For a 19 second lap at Bristol(.533 miles): Speed = .533 x (3600/19), = .533 x 189.474 = a speed of 100.990mph

Storyline - New right-side tire to debut at Martinsville: Goodyear will bring a new tire recommendation to Martinsville for 2017, featuring a new right-side tread compound that was developed to help "rubber-in" the track. Martinsville's concrete corners behave differently than asphalt, with the density of the surface making it more challenging for the rubber to continuously adhere to the track. This new right-side compound is married to a proven construction combination, which works well to optimize the acceleration, deceleration and cornering required for Martinsville's unique configuration of long straightaways and tight, flat turns. And one other note that may play into the strategy of this Sunday's race is the fact that Cup teams will have two less race sets than last year at Martinsville.

Notes: Teams in both the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup and Camping World Truck Series will run the same tire set-up at Martinsville this weekend . . . this left-side tire code (D-4588) has been run at this track since April 2013 . . . this is a brand new right-side tire code (D-4722), which came out of a Goodyear tire test at Martinsville last October 4-5 . . . teams participating in that test were the Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet with Jamie McMurray, Furniture Row Racing Toyota with Martin Truex Jr., Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet with Paul Menard and Roush Fenway Racing Ford with Greg Biffle . . . compared to what was run at Martinsville last year, this right-side tire features a compound change to help lay more rubber on the track . . . this is the only track at which NASCAR teams will run either of these two tire codes . . . as on most NASCAR ovals one mile or less in length, teams will not run inner liners in their tires at Martinsville.